Chinese can apply some magic to lithium battery shipments. I don't know how they do it, but I have managed to get all my batteries in decent time.. one, 250Wh bike battery came directly via air mail. It was well packaged and didn't have any honest shipping data Local customs found it and were mildly suspicious.. but didn't open it. So I just declared it as 'bike parts' and paid taxes. Most battery shipments leave china - disappear - mysteriously materialize somewhere at a logistics partner inside EU and come as normal EU-mail bypassing all authorities.. so in most cases there is even no vat, no customs fees..

Here's a new option (Thanks to ejonesss). "Roadie.com" is to shipping as Uber is to Taxis. You get the app, and a guy who lives near you and is driving to near the city you want to ship a package to picks it up and drops it off. Is it safe? Can they be trusted? Who knows...

Has anyone found a successful way to get batteries in Canada?
I need to send 2 36V packs. Each have 10 cells of course.
But many shippers say that lithium ion have to be charged to only 30% of their full capacity.
How can this be done? The pack would need to be resting at 11V or so

ecotech wrote:Well from what I can tell as long as you don't send the batteries as batteries but send them as a package with something else , i.e. a battery charger that has all the batteries attached to it, then you can send it as a battery charger and not as a battery, that's how companies bypass the dangerous goods method which costs a lot, also if you ship via freight most will not care if there are batteries or not inside.

I am in Sweden and there are no available shipping options for batteries in chinese shops (banggood, gearbest, fasttech...)

Maybe it's time I switched back to coal and oil as power sources and go the full circle.

I don't understand why they can't ship using boat or something, similar situation has happened few years ago and they shipped using boat and land transport, it took 2 months but at least it was possible to ship.

I suspect that in some countries customs is more thorough than others, and those are where these vendors gave up trying, as it costs them too much to ship them properly, or they got too many customer complaints from the cost of customs duties, etc., when shipments were labelled with actual values and contents, etc. (or they weren't labelled and shipments were siezed or refused at customs).

I suspect that in some countries customs is more thorough than others, and those are where these vendors gave up trying, as it costs them too much to ship them properly, or they got too many customer complaints from the cost of customs duties, etc., when shipments were labelled with actual values and contents, etc. (or they weren't labelled and shipments were siezed or refused at customs).

Sure it does make sense and cells should be shipped properly for everybody's safety. It is probably not difficult to xray packets and check for cells. As I said earlier, I'd rather fly without superfire etc cells in the plane's trunk.

There is only one shop in whole Europe that I know can ship these cells inside Europe at decent prices (still somewhat higher than chinese shops). So obviously there is a way to ship cells to Europe.

Nkon in Holland ship using DPD, here in UK they arrived in 4 days in a regular cardboard box with battery labels on. All above board and proper, shipping was 10-12 euros.
The same cells form China are some what cheaper however doing the maths and once shipping is applied worked out a bit more expensive unless a very large order is made, a 3 week wait hoping that they turn up with none missing from any customs prying.

I just had a discussion with a USPS supervisor recently. If there is a lithium battery in a shipment, they felt it was more acceptable if the battery was inside a device (smart-phone, flashlight, or laptop, etc), and if the package was properly labeled as "containing a lithium battery" then...if this criteria was met, it would simply be shipped by truck instead of airplane.

As usual, they had not heard anything about the "300-WH" limit (3.6V X 83-Ah), and were only concerned with if the package was properly labeled.

I tried to convince them that it is safer to have the lithium battery separate and wrapped in plastic, than installed in a device that might short from vibration and bouncing, but..."when you are trained to use a hammer, everything looks like a nail"

ebike11 wrote:Anyone know of a method to get lithium pack 10s pack into Canada?

As far as I know, you need to ship to a border town in the US, and hop over and get it.

I've been looking at some great deals on Fasttech.com for 26650 batteries, and I want to purchase some, but they simply won't ship to Canada, not even a single battery. So I'm going to have to probably ship to Sweetgrass, Montana. Then drive there and pick them up. It's going to be a pain in the ass.

If I get them sea-freighted it's a flat US$260, plus clearing fees when it arrives in Oz.
Air freight is US$1000 with all fees included. These are based on DHL I think.

The new fees came in after April this year in response to tighter regulations around air freighting lithium batteries. It hasn't gotten any safer, just more expensive to comply...In the past I've paid about US$450 for an equivalent shipment, so it's quite a significant jump.

Kirby - You'll find the bike can be sent sans battery easily, and the battery can be shipped separately with any firm who claims to be a specialist in lithium battery shipping. Pack N Send are actually pretty good with it, albeit a bit expensive. Of course you can sea freight it, but airfreight would be easiest.

at the time we started developing the LiGo batteries the regulations were pretty clear allowing up to 20pcs of <100 Wh battery packs to be shipped without going as dangerous goods. In April of 2016 the rules got adjusted down to just 2 batteries, and since January 2017 most of the couriers (like Fedex, UPS) have an internal policy that they will not accept any lithium battery only shipment without it going as Class 9 Dangerous Goods cargo.

However, there is another category of batteries packed with equipment (not even packed in equipment) which they are happy to ship, and so lately we've been including a cosmetic defect ebike light, DC-DC converter, or other small items that can be powered off the LiGo battery. If they see that we are shipping a bike light with a couple spare battery packs all <100 Wh, then that is no problem. But without the light in there and just batteries only it has to go as Dangerous Goods (with the $60 DG surcharge, packed in vermiculite, and all that).

This was a very nice flow chart from UPS, but it is dated 2015. I know the Air portion has changed in early 2017, but does anyone know if the GROUND portion is still valid? I searched and searched UPS but couldn't find their UPS Ground requirements for CONUS.https://www.ups.com/assets/resources/me ... ations.pdf

So the 20Ahr A123 pouch cells look like they just barely exceed the 60WHr limit per cell. (say 66WHr when fully charged. ... or can you interpret the 60WHr cell limit based on the percent charge of the cell when shipped? So a 20Ah4 A123 pouch cell at 50% charge would be 33Whr.)

I think if there was an insurance investigation after a fire, any surviving cells would be measured at 3.3V per cell and would pass muster as "X" watt hours. If a postal inspector asked you to open the shipment and verify the cells, a DMM could be used to prove 3.3V per cell, and if the cells appeared to have official looking labeling as to the Ah, then the supervisor could look up Volts X Ah = WH. Sounds complex, but I think it could be pulled off easily. Make sure to have a DMM and don't seal the box until its been accepted at the shipping desk. Show that each cell is individually wrapped, which is the real issue that I don't see being discussed...

Sounds like a hassle, but if you ship cells once a month, it would be worth generating a relationship with a specific postal supervisor at your local post office / FedEx / UPS shipping center. The good folks operating the counter often can't be relied on to really KNOW the latest regulations. Nobody wants to get yelled at by the boss and/or lose a possible up-coming promotion and/or get fired...

It is not unreasonable to expect the counter-employee to defer to not accepting a shipment, in the absence of a clear set of rules that they happen to be recently familiar with.

What about flying with Lithium batteries as a passenger? (when going abroad)
I saw the new IATA rules several times, and didn't see any limitation on the number of spare <100Wh batteries you can carry inside the cabin. This means that you can carry as many LiGo batteries as you want, until you reach the 8Kg cabin baggage limit.
Is it true?
The only limitation regarding the amount you can carry is for 100Wh-160Wh spare batteries - this is where only two spares allowed in the cabin. Here is the link:https://www.iata.org/whatwedo/cargo/dgr ... 23A-en.pdf

I also understand that it's possible that LiGo's could also be defined as equipment with battery? (it is a light source and bluetooth device, too)
In that case, you can carry it inside the checked in baggage, and for <100Wh devices there is no limit for the number you can put there.
So again, if I want to transport my batteries in the checked in baggage instead of the cabin, it could yield a much bigger number of LiGo's thanks to the possibility of higher total weight.